TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Health Systems Improvement

The Bureau of Primary Health Care depends on primary care associations in each state to provide comprehensive training and technical assistance to thousands of health centers across the country. Mindful of this responsibility, the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association endeavors to provide a wide array of programs and development opportunities that meet the health system improvement expectations by the Bureau, while also being responsive to the operational needs of Hawai‘i’s network of Community Health Centers.

Our major work in this area focuses on improvements in system quality and health outcomes, expansion and meaningful use of health information technology, and the development of strategic partnerships between health centers and other organizations to address statewide public health challenges.

Collectively, this comprehensive set of networking activities improve the quality of care at health centers. They also increase organizational capacity by improving employee job satisfaction, reducing isolation typically faced by rural providers, and decreasing dependence on more costly resources from the mainland.

Funded through a portion of the Affordable Care Act, this initiative of the Centers for Disease Control is aimed at supporting a dual approach (population-wide and priority-population) to reduce disparities and prevent the onset of specific chronic diseases.

HPCA is a key facilitator in the $11 million dollar grant, and has forged a partnership with the Hawai‘i Public Health Institute (HI-PHI), the Department of Health, and the University of Hawai‘i to develop a comprehensive approach that links public health strategies and health systems interventions which can identify and prevent diabetes and hypertension in Hawai‘i’s neediest communities.

With HPCA’s guidance nine health centers across the state are actively engaged in this initiative, which addresses an urgent public health need and supports other ongoing health systems improvements (i.e., Patient-Centered Medical Homes, population management, and EHR meaningful use).

Patients face a variety of challenges to accessing quality, affordable healthcare; chief among them are the availability of providers and insurance coverage. However, there are a host of other social determinants that create additional barriers. Often, common civil legal issues related to these social determinants create significant burdens that negatively affect health.

Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs) help patients resolve issues related to housing, energy, education, employment, legal status, and income/insurance access. The partnership between health providers like CHCs and legal organizations creates an effective bridge that ensures patients have assistance to resolve issues that may be impacting their ability to lead healthy lives. Our work in this area helps support these important linkages for health centers on Oahu involved in MLPs

HPCA Events

Other Technical Assistance

HPCA regularly coordinates the annual Uniform Data System (UDS) training for health centers and look alikes. We also provide a range of technical assistance services related to Emergency Preparedness so that health centers can best plan for continuity of operations in the event of natural disasters or other environmental crisis.